The morning mist clung to the forest floor like a living thing, and Instinct pushed through it with practiced ease.
Arwen walked beside him, her posture straighter than it had been when he’d first found her.
Kyra appeared from between the trees ahead, her nine tails swishing with barely contained excitement.
She’d been scouting the path, moving with a speed neither Instinct nor Arwen could easily match.
“We’re close,” she said, her voice carrying that peculiar blend of playfulness and predatory focus.
“I can smell the Shattered Spire now.”
Her golden eyes gleamed.
“Old magic.
Ancient.
Thick enough to choke on.”
“How far?” Instinct asked.
“Half a day if we push hard.
Maybe less if you let me carry you.”
Kyra’s eyes glinted with mischief.
She’d been testing his boundaries constantly since they’d left the shrine, always looking for ways to get closer, to prove herself indispensable.
Arwen cleared her throat delicately.
“I believe we should maintain a measured pace.
Rushing into danger has never served us well.”
It was the kind of thing she said often now.
Practical wisdom wrapped in careful courtesy.
Instinct had learned that beneath her composed exterior, Arwen was watching everything.
Watching him.
Watching Kyra.
Watching the strange dynamic that was forming between all three of them.
He’d checked his status that morning while they broke camp.
INSTINCT — LEVEL 40
CLASS: ABSOLUTE TAMER
BONDS: 2 ACTIVE
ARWEN — LEVEL 82
KYRA — LEVEL 94
The numbers meant something.
But not everything.
Arwen’s steady presence grounded him, keeping him from making reckless decisions.
Kyra’s wild energy pushed him forward, reminding him that caution and power weren’t always compatible.
They weren’t always compatible with him, at least.
“We’ll take the middle path,” Instinct decided.
“Fast enough to reach the Spire before nightfall.
Careful enough that we don’t stumble into an ambush.”
Kyra pouted.
But she didn’t argue.
That was new.
Before the bond, she would have challenged every decision, testing him constantly.
Now she deferred.
Not out of weakness.
Not submission.
Something else.
Trust, perhaps.
Something that made Instinct’s chest tighten in ways he didn’t fully understand.
The path wound through increasingly twisted terrain.
The trees grew gnarled and wrong, their bark blackened as if by some ancient fire.
The air itself felt different here.
Charged.
Heavy with residual magic that made Instinct’s skin prickle.
Absolute Sense reacted immediately.
This was a place where power had been unleashed.
And not all of it was ancient.
“Something happened here,” Arwen said quietly.
She was right.
Scorch marks scarred the ground.
Deep gouges cut through the earth.
Several trees had been shattered completely.
Something massive had fought here.
And judging from the damage— whatever it had fought had been massive as well.
Instinct knelt, running his fingers over one of the marks.
“Recent?”
Arwen crouched beside him.
“Several days, perhaps.”
Kyra inhaled slowly.
“Three.
Maybe four.”
Instinct’s thoughts immediately went to the basilisks.
Had they been fighting each other?
Or had something else come through?
“We should be careful,” he said, standing.
“Whatever caused this could still be nearby.”
Kyra’s playfulness disappeared. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Her nine tails spread behind her as her golden eyes scanned the forest.
“I don’t sense anything immediate.”
She frowned.
“But the magic here is old.
Layered.”
Her gaze moved toward the twisted trees.
“It’s like someone has been pouring power into this place for centuries.”
Then—
Instinct felt something.
He stopped.
It wasn’t quite a notification.
Not like the System messages Nyx showed him.
This was different.
A pull.
A demand for attention.
His Absolute Sense reached outward instinctively.
At the same time, something within his Absolute Tamer class responded.
The two sensations overlapped.
And for one strange moment— the forest changed.
Instinct closed his eyes.
He could feel the physical world around him.
Trees.
Stone.
Movement.
Life.
But beneath that was something else.
Power.
Faint currents moving through the earth.
Residual magic clinging to the forest.
Living presences scattered throughout the surrounding wilderness.
And deeper still— something else.
Something powerful.
Restrained.
Bound.
Instinct’s eyes snapped open.
“There’s something trapped here.”
Arwen’s hand moved immediately toward her bow.
“Trapped how?”
Instinct stared deeper into the forest.
“I don’t know.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know that either.”
Kyra’s eyes narrowed.
Instinct concentrated again.
“But it’s powerful.”
The sensation pressed against him.
“Really powerful.”
Nyx finally spoke.
” INTERESTING.
”
Instinct barely heard her.
” YOUR ABSOLUTE SENSE AND YOUR CLASS ARE INTERACTING.
”
They’ve never done that before.
” YOU’VE NEVER BEEN LEVEL FORTY BEFORE.
”
A hint of her usual amusement returned.
” APPARENTLY YOU’RE FINALLY LEARNING HOW TO USE SOME OF THAT RIDICULOUS POWER YOU’VE BEEN WALKING AROUND WITH.
”
Instinct ignored the jab.
He concentrated on the pull.
Northeast.
Deeper into the twisted forest.
“We need to investigate.”
“Or…”
Kyra’s voice came from beside him.
“…we could ignore the ominous trapped monstrosity in the cursed-looking forest and continue toward the Spire.”
Instinct looked at her.
“The Spire is close,” she continued.
“We get the basilisk venom and leave.
Simple.”
Her tails flicked.
“Remarkably sensible, actually.”
She was curious too.
Instinct started moving.
His instincts—the same ones that had served him since the moment he awakened—were screaming that this was important.
That whatever was trapped here was connected to something larger.
Perhaps to the Spire.
Perhaps to the strange quest he’d received.
Perhaps to something else entirely.
Arwen followed without complaint, though Instinct caught the worry in her expression.
Kyra joined them a moment later, her tails curling closer around her body defensively.
The forest grew denser as they pushed deeper.
Trees leaned inward.
Branches tangled overhead.
The path became a tunnel of shadow and twisted wood.
Then— abruptly— they emerged into a clearing.
Instinct stopped.
At its center stood something that defied immediate description.
A massive stone structure.
Almost like a cage.
Runes covered every surface.
Hundreds of them.
Perhaps thousands.
They glowed with a sickly purple light.
And beneath them— something moved.
Something enormous.
Scales shimmered like liquid silver beneath the magical light.
Arwen stopped beside him.
“By the gods…”
It wasn’t a basilisk.
Instinct knew that immediately.
It was something far older.
Something that looked almost like a dragon.
But wrong somehow.
Different.
Chains of pure magic wrapped around its body, crackling with power as they anchored the creature to the stone structure.
Then its eyes opened.
Ancient.
Intelligent.
Furious.
They fixed directly on Instinct.
His breath caught.
His Absolute Tamer class responded.
Not with a command.
Not with domination.
Recognition.
Potential.
A possible bond.
Instinct could feel the creature’s power pressing against his senses.
Could feel the ancient bindings restraining it.
Weakening.
They had been weakening for a long time.
And somehow— his presence was affecting them.
Instinct stared at the creature.
A test?
An opportunity?
Or both?
His class flared again.
A strange hunger rose within him.
Not simply for power.
For connection.
To understand what this creature was.
Why it had been imprisoned.
And who had been powerful enough to put it here.
“Instinct.”
Kyra stepped closer.
There was no teasing in her voice now.
“Whatever you’re thinking—”
“I’m not thinking anything yet,” he said quietly.
His eyes never left the creature.
“I’m just feeling.”
The creature strained against its bonds.
Purple runes blazed.
Chains screamed with magical energy.
And the earth trembled.